Millennial car buyers still want face-to-face time at dealerships

Millennials may be overly reliant on their mobile devices, but when it comes to shopping for a car they still like to get face-to-face at a dealership.

Millennials are more likely to use mobile to research a car purchase, according to recent research by car-buying platform Edmunds.com. Forty-one percent used mobile to read vehicle reviews compared to 20% of all other adults, a third (34%) of Millennials used mobile to find vehicles for sale (vs. 20% of all other adults) and 33% used mobile to research prices (vs. 21% of all adults).

In fact, overall 80% of Millennials used mobile to help in at least one car purchase task compared to just 46% of people age 35 and over.

However, their use of mobile does not entirely preclude dealerships from their research and purchase journeys. While 70% had used mobile to contact a dealer via text message during the shopping process, compared to just 43% of all other adults, nearly two-thirds (64%) said they preferred to get face-to-face with dealers. Nearly all, 96%, said that a test drive was important before they decided on whether to purchase a vehicle.

Mobile continues to play a role in the purchase journey even when considering how their device will fit with their vehicle choice. For 4 out of 5 Millennials it was important that their mobile device integrated with their car. Sixty two percent were willing to pay more for a car that was Wi-Fi connected. However, Millennials ranked in-car technology features such as infotainment and Bluetooth well behind price, fuel economy and performance.

"Millennials today are informed car buyers," said Avi Steinlauf, Edmunds.com CEO. "They're making the most out of the volume of information available at their fingertips, and it's helping them to make a smarter car purchase. And since a smart car buyer is a quality car buyer, it all points to an optimistic and healthy future for the auto industry."

Additional findings from Edmunds.com's research include:

In other findings on Millennial mobile shopping habits:

- 78% of car purchases by Millennials last year were used-cars compared with 68% of all car purchases by adults age 35 and over;

- 1 in 3 Millennials used mobile to find contact details for a local dealership, compared with 1 in 4 adults age 35 and over;

- Millennials accounted for 39% of all traffic to used car pages on Edmunds.com in 2014, but accounted for 58% of mobile traffic to those pages.